Today, many people have embraced the information age and depend upon multimedia devices to provide them with a means to receive current information as well as the ability to communicate with other people. Many homes now include at least one personal computer and television. In addition, many people own Set Top Boxes (STB), Digital Video Disc (DVD) players and equipment such as cameras, scanners and software for enabling their personal computers and televisions to be used as multimedia communication devices.
In addition, many offices, hotels and airplanes are equipped with multimedia equipment which may be used for either business or pleasure. It is a natural progression, that people will want to be able to view particular multimedia content at a particular time and at a particular place (e.g., view a broadcast program while in flight). While the current technology allows for users to schedule a viewing of a particular program at a particular time (e.g., video recorders), the current technology does not conveniently allow for scheduling the availability of multimedia content on a designated device that may or may not be operated by the user at a particular time.
In order to achieve this goal of being able to view multimedia content at a particular time and a particular place, there must be a mechanism for identifying the available multimedia content and for recording the content locally at the place in which the content is to be viewed. While products such as TiVo™ allow for the scheduled viewing of multimedia content on a local recording device, TiVo™ does not currently allow for the scheduled viewing of multimedia content on a variety of devices located in a variety of places and which may be operated by more than one entity.